Strategic public procurement management in Finland 2018

Finland uses approximately EUR 35 billion on public procurement each year, yet the state of strategic procurement management has never been studied before. KEINO conducted a survey in June–August 2018 to map the current state of the strategic management of sustainable and innovative public procurement in different organisations.  The survey responses are used to formulate KEINO’s strategic procurement management services.

Implementation of the Strategic Management of Sustainable Innovative Public Procurement in Finland 2018

The survey was implemented as an electronic survey and it yielded a total of 136 responses. The majority of respondents represented municipalities (60), the government (29) and parishes (26). The rest of the respondents represented limited-company type operators (6), units external to the national economy (4) and other organisations (11).

Respondents
IMAGE 1. Respondents of Implementation of the Strategic Management of Sustainable Innovative Public Procurement in Finland 2018 -survey.

Strategic management baseline

Several (79%) of the organisations that took part in the survey had strategic procurement policies in place. The most common type was a separate strategic policy applicable to the whole organisation (48%). The second most common response was that the strategic procurement policies were included in the organisation’s overall strategy (18%). Some of the respondents had centralised procurement policies in place (10%). A few of the respondents (3%) have policies concerning an individual sector or agency. Based on the open-ended answers, the organisations that selected option Something else (6%) were planning a procurement policy or procurement guide, an internal procurement organisation and steering guide as well as the organisation’s own strategy.

Organisation's public procurement strategy, policies or similar
IMAGE 2. Organisation's public procurement strategy, policies or similar.

Only a quarter of the organisations regularly monitor the realisation of strategic policies. A third of the respondents monitor it on an irregular basis. In total, approximately half (49%) of the respondents implement some kind of monitoring.  Some of the respondents (16%) said that they were not carrying out monitoring yet but were planning to do so.

Monitoring and measuring the realisation of procurement policies or similar
IMAGE 3. Monitoring and measuring the realisation of procurement policies or similar.

Based on the survey, roadmaps are rarely used as a management tool.  Most of the respondents (39%) did not use a roadmap or development plan. Approximately one fourth (28%) of the respondents used a roadmap or development plan. Of these organisations, half (14%) had not allocated responsibilities or schedules for a roadmap or development plan and the other half (14%) had done this in the main. A small percentage (5%) of the respondents had a sector- or unit-specific development plan or roadmap in place.

Development plan or roadmap been drawn up for the implementation of procurement policies or similar
IMAGE 4. Development plan or roadmap been drawn up for the implementation of procurement policies or similar.

Sustainable procurement

The survey mapped the way the three key themes of sustainability – environmental liability, social responsibility and financial liability – are taken into account in procurement policies or similar.

More than half of the respondents said that financial liability was taken into account at a general level throughout the organisation. Social responsibility and environmental liability, on the other hand, were taken into account in slightly less than half of the organisations. Based on the responses, social responsibility was taken into account least of the three.

Taking the themes of sustainability into account in procurement policies or similar
IMAGE 5. Taking the themes of sustainability into account in procurement policies or similar.

Innovations in procurement

The respondents were asked whether innovations were taken into account in procurement policies or similar.  Nearly half of the respondents (47%) replied that innovations were taken into account sector- or unit-specifically at a general level throughout the organisation or via binding, detailed guidelines applied to the whole organisation. A third of the respondents (33%) replied that innovations were not taken into consideration in procurement policies or similar.

Innovations taken into account in procurement policies or similar
IMAGE 6. Innovations taken into account in procurement policies or similar.

Taking SMEs into account in procurement

Slightly more than half (53%) of the respondents said that the SME aspect was taken into account in procurement. Roughly one third (38%) of the respondents explained that the SME aspect was taken into account at a general level throughout the organisation.  A third (34%) of the respondents completely ignored the SME aspect. Approximately every tenth (9%) of the respondents told that they were planning to take it into account.

The SME aspect taken into account in procurement policies or similar
IMAGE 7. The SME aspect taken into account in procurement policies or similar.

Other survey questions – using joint procurement units, procurement resourcing and communication

83% of the respondents said that they were using the services of a joint procurement unit (such as Tuomi Logistiikka Oy or Hansel Oy). The survey also revealed that the organisations employed scarcely any employees whose primary job description comprises procurement. Roughly a third (34%) of the respondent organisations did not announce acquisitions that exceed the national threshold value in advance.

Summary and specific indicators of the Strategic Management of Sustainable Innovative Public Procurement in Finland 2018 survey

Read the summary of the Strategic Management of Sustainable Innovative Public Procurement in Finland 2018 survey. The summary provides further information regarding the survey results as well as additional indicators. You can download the summary of the survey results and a synopsis of the summary as appendices below.